So after a few years of lurking these forums I’ve finally started to build my cabinet (familiar story, I know). A good handful of builds on this site have served as inspiration for mine so thanks to everyone here who have paved the way! I don’t have very many requirements for my cabinet, but I want a classic 6-button layout to play most games, a trackball, and most importantly, I want this thing to look authentic, like it could have come straight from the 80s.

I'm using laminate for the front, back, and inside of the side panels.

The sides are almost identical to the Space Duel/Gravitar cabinets. They definitely have my favorite profile of any arcade:

Laminating only the reveal made it so I could use one sheet for both sides. It saved me about $50 lol.

Here she is standing up with a few panels attached. I'm positive I documented the laminating process, but I can't find the pics.

Here's the back. The feet and cabinet handles are from Twisted Quarter. I also put casters on there to move it around. Every full-size upright should have these things! I can't tell you how many times I've moved it around while working on it lol. The fan grills are just from of Amazon. I put some black t-molding on the inside of the fan cutouts. I think it gave it a nice finished look.

I also put black t-molding inside the speaker cutouts. I really didn't want it to look like an arcade cabinet with transplanted car speakers, so I just kind of copied the Space Duel grills. I had them custom cut from an eBay seller. I just primed and painted them, then used screw caps to finish it off. I think it came out pretty good. I thought of using rivets, but I wanted to be able to take the grill off just in case I needed to in the future. No offense to anyone using car speaker grills, of course. They look great on certain cabs, but they would look out of place on a restored Asteroids or Pac-man, so I didn't want it on this build.

So that's all I got for now. I'll add some updated pictures tomorrow after I install the TV and glass.

I originally found two full sheets of black Nevamar laminate on Craigslist for just $20. Right when I got home I dropped and shattered both of them. Needless to say I treated the new ones like fine china plates.

A little progress update. I built the control panel out of wood by attaching a few 2" boards onto a 12" piece. I primed, sanded, and sprayed it with Rustoleum black satin for the CPO to stick to. Came out nice and smooth. I used a piano hinge that I bought on eBay to attach it to the cabinet. I just used the same primer and spray paint for the hinge.

I was able to get the glass installed, too. The support that it rests on was ripped at about 45 degrees then I routed out just a bit over a 1/4 inch on the top so the glass won't go anywhere. I cut the bottom at an angle so that it could be installed sort of like a French cleat.

Worked out perfectly:

Here's a pic from the inside:

I didn't want the back door panel to just sit on top of the panel below it, so I added a few thumb tacks to add a little space that was equal to the one above it.

Ugh, that's where the dumb bar code sticker was. It left some nasty residue after I peeled it off, so I foolishly tried to scrape and sand it clean. Unless anyone else has a better idea, I'm going to use some Goo Gone to get the rest of it off, then level it with wood putty and sand it smooth. I should have just done that in the first place.

Here's the 42" tv that's going in the cabinet. Taking off the back and getting the speakers out (they're still on in the picture) was a lot easier than I thought. It's going to be mounted vertically so I could get the equivalent of a 24" display for both horizontal and vertical games. I've been playing with shaders in Retroarch and am pretty happy so far.

Speaking of Retroarch, I have a quick question (probably with a not-so-quick answer). Adjusting the “custom viewport” in Retroarch’s video settings allows me to display the game pretty much anywhere I want on a TV, but this, of course, only affects the game being displayed and not the frontend (Hyperspin for now). Is there a way to have the frontend’s display adjusted as well? Should I post this question in the Monitor/Video forum? Thanks in advance!

Here's the 42" tv that's going in the cabinet. Taking off the back and getting the speakers out (they're still on in the picture) was a lot easier than I thought. It's going to be mounted vertically so I could get the equivalent of a 24" display for both horizontal and vertical games.

For your frontend - you could probably do a custom theme on a skinnable frontend that puts it wherever you like. Or, you may be able to get your video driver to take a custom resolution for the windows desktop. nVidia drivers give you a limited amount of placement offset. Some people have had luck using Powerstrip. I designed my cabinet around the centerpoint of the monitor being the centerpoint of the visible screen and buried both ends of it, so I didn't need an offset.

Lol! That's good company... Your and Token's builds are very nice! But if we're going to have a secret handshake we gotta shoot for something unique that no one can mimic. Ok, I promise to never do that again

For your frontend - you could probably do a custom theme on a skinnable frontend that puts it wherever you like. Or, you may be able to get your video driver to take a custom resolution for the windows desktop. nVidia drivers give you a limited amount of placement offset. Some people have had luck using Powerstrip. I designed my cabinet around the centerpoint of the monitor being the centerpoint of the visible screen and buried both ends of it, so I didn't need an offset.

Thanks for the suggestions! I have a custom 1080x1080 resolution that I've got going no problem, and my monitor is just about centered with the cab's display area; it's about a 1/4" low, I think, which I was planning to fix with the offset option like you mentioned. But I was considering leaning the TV back a little more than I had originally designed which would push the display a bit lower. This is why I was thinking Retroarch to move the display. I've tried Powerstrip, but I couldn't get any more offset than with my graphics card.

I have a custom 1080x1080 resolution that I've got going no problem, and my monitor is just about centered with the cab's display area; it's about a 1/4" low, I think, which I was planning to fix with the offset option like you mentioned. But I was considering leaning the TV back a little more than I had originally designed which would push the display a bit lower. This is why I was thinking Retroarch to move the display. I've tried Powerstrip, but I couldn't get any more offset than with my graphics card.

Ah, gotcha. You're already up to speed on everything I can think of to suggest, software-wise, then.

Hi guys, so I've spent some time designing a CPO and have come up with the following 2. The first one has more of a "Star Wars" feel to it, which is the one I'm leaning toward. The second one is inspired by the asteroids deluxe CPO. I think I'll use white buttons, but am not totally sure yet. The horizontal "lights" at the bottom will wrap around the front of the control panel. What do you think? Any and all feedback is welcome!

Hi guys, so I've spent some time designing a CPO and have come up with the following 2. The first one has more of a "Star Wars" feel to it, which is the one I'm leaning toward. The second one is inspired by the asteroids deluxe CPO. I think I'll use white buttons, but am not totally sure yet. The horizontal "lights" at the bottom will wrap around the front of the control panel. What do you think? Any and all feedback is welcome!

your side art and marquee will dictate which one to go with, mock those up as well and see how it all flows together.

your side art and marquee will dictate which one to go with, mock those up as well and see how it all flows together.

That's good advise, thanks. I'm no artist so the side art and marquee are going to take me a while, but I'm hoping that I can create something that has the same feel as some of my favorites like Xevious, Space Duel, and Asteroids Deluxe to name a few. We'll see how resourceful and creative I can be lol.

Finally an update! So I made a few changes to the first CPO that I posted above and went ahead and had it printed by Brad (Lucian045). Here’s what I got in the mail:

I can’t say how easy it was to order from Brad. He responded to my emails very quickly and we were able to chat over the phone about a few details. He was patient and informative throughout the process. Most importantly, though, I’m very impressed with the quality of the product. Very nice! To anyone looking to order artwork I’d highly recommend him.

This was my first time applying artwork, so it took me a few days to muster up the courage to actually do it, lol. Laying it on smooth wasn’t the problem; making sure it lined up with the edges was what I was sweating over. In the end it turned out good. I know that most here on the forums drill the holes for their controls before adhering the CPO, but I really wanted the position of the buttons to be aligned perfectly with the art. On my practice panel and other scrap pieces, I just couldn’t get my holes to line up the way I wanted them to. Even being very careful, some of them ended up being like 1/32” off. Not sure if the method I used is documented here in the forums so here’s a few pics to help explain what I did.

I first drilled a 1 1/8” hold in a scrap piece to use as a template. I did this using a (extremely cheap and old) drill press and 1 1/8” hold saw. This way the hole cut was perpendicular to the board.

Then, after adhering the CPO, I drilled a 7/8” hole with a spade bit to “rough cut” the opening of one of the holes for the buttons. It doesn’t tear the CPO, but it’s definitely not a very clean cut.

Then, I placed the template over the rough cut opening making sure it was perfectly aligned and centered with the circle on the art and clamped it. Sometimes the clamps would move the template a bit, so it occasionally took a few tries to get it just right. Also, I was extremely careful to wipe both the CP and template clean before placing it. Last thing I wanted was a scratched surface.

I then used the router with a flush trim bit to finish cutting the hole in the CP. The end result is a very nice and clean cut. I repeated these steps for each hole. I didn’t cut more than one rough opening at a time because I wanted to make sure nothing was scratched. Here’s a picture of all the button holes done.

I have to say I’m very satisfied with the end result. You’d think a CNC machine cut them. No difference in distance between any of the buttons, and they’re aligned PERFECTLY with the artwork!

Next up, cutting the opening for the trackball and routing the underside for joysticks.

Thanks for the nudge, lol! I've totally been slacking on updating my thread. You know how it is -- life gets in the way.

Anyway, before I dive into updates, a little background on my trackball situation. So early/mid last year I bought a black Happ high lip trackball for the project. I didn't know much about the Happ trackball mounts at the time, so along with the trackball I ordered a standard trackball mount. The listing on eBay said that it works with both the standard and high lip track balls, which, in fairness I suppose is true. But the opening on the trackball mount isn’t big enough for the lip to fit through; it pushes up against the bottom of the mount. A few threads here in the forums go over this; not sure if I read those before or after ordering. Oh well. Anyway, I didn’t want this because it didn’t look as clean to me, so back in December when all this was happening I went looking to order a mount for the high lip. Found out that NOBODY had them in stock (I tried a handful of different vendors), and Happ had (still has?) them on backorder til February or so of this year. So then I thought of this grand idea to just use a hole saw to widen the opening of the standard mount I had from 3” to 3 ¼”. Here’s a picture of how that went:

The dumb guide bit had a mind of its own and traveled all over the place in the wood. I should have clamped the mount down to something metal, I guess. I was angry. My wife could tell haha. I thought about waiting for the high lip mount, but instead I went ahead and ordered a U-trak. I kinda wanted a white ball instead of the black one I ordered with the Happ, and after looking at ChanceKJ’s flush mount technique on his Flynn’s Arcade with the U-track, I thought that would look good on my panel.

After impatiently waiting for an unexpected 2 week delivery time I had the U-Trak in my hands. (For the record, I didn’t order from Andy’s Ultimarc website. If I had, I would expect the 2 weeks since I’m in the US. In fact, I think my i-pac ultimate came faster than 2 weeks, which I DID order from Andy’s site I think early 2016.)

Being excited with the new toy, I busted out my router and flush trim bit and got the hole for the trackball just right. I also routed out about 1/8” on the underside so that the lip of the trackball would sit flush with the surface of the CPO.

While I was at it, I drilled, routed, and chiseled the placements for the joystick mounts. I used these joystick mounting plates from Paradise Arcade Shop. They gave me just enough room to work with my wood inserts. Actually, for safe measure I used my Dremel and cut off the ends of the inserts:

I didn’t want any chance of ruining my panel, so I used a scrap piece of wood to create a drill bit stop to make sure the depth was right for each insert.

Here’s what I had after the woodworking:

I like the S style mounting plates cause they allowed me to get the proper joystick shaft height as recommended/mentioned at Slagcoin while bottom-mounting them. It also provides options down the road should I have to change anything. And, blind mounting the joysticks just looks better imho.

Ok back to the U-Trak. So, I had originally accommodated for the depth of the Happ trackball. Space is limited under my control panel, so I made sure I had measurements just right. BUT, now I had a U-trak, and as luck would have it, it didn’t fit!! The control panel wouldn’t close all the way. The bottom of the trackball housing was hitting the panel below the control panel. I don’t think the U-trak is larger than the Happ, but the Happ mounting plate allowed for about 5/8” more space. So, I took apart the u-trak to see what I was working with:

After inspecting the housing, I figured I could cut off a bit of it where it was hitting the bottom panel. I mounted it to a board and cut it on the table saw.

Mounted it to test fit again. Still wouldn’t close. I needed a tiny bit more room. So I took my router and cut out some of the bottom panel it was hitting against. I also drilled out a little extra for the mounting bolt using a forster bit.

That did the trick, without a mm to spare lol.

Once that was taken care of it was on to installing all the buttons and wiring it up. Took forever! I used the Dupont style housings and terminals. Real estate is limited with this CP, so I was forced to mount the ipac ultimate above (well, technically speaking, below) player 2’s joystick. I really didn’t want the hassle of mounting it somewhere else. It worked fine in the end. Here she is before being mounted to the cabinet.

I’ve got more, but I want to post what I’ve jotted down so far. I feel like I just wrote an essay lol. I think I'll have a bit of free time later tonight. Thanks for checking it out!

See, THAT'S a control panel. No characters, no battle scenes, just a simple design that looks like a real panel from the SW Universe. I wish more people designing their panels would think about practical design the same way. You hit a home run that Babe Ruth would be proud of!